For the majority of the first half of the season, the St. Cloud State men's hockey team was blasting past teams with the power of four lines and seemingly constant offensive pressure.

Things have been a bit more sluggish in the second half, but the Huskies had a line step forward and lead the charge Friday to beat Nebraska Omaha 5-3 in an NCHC game at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

The line for the Huskies that was firing all night was senior center Judd Peterson with sophomore wings Nick and Jack Poehling. Peterson and Nick Poehling had hustle goals to open the scoring for the Huskies and St. Cloud State scored three goals in the second period.

"We didn't play good for two periods," Huskies coach Bob Motzko said. "We had some guys going. Petey's line was outstanding tonight.

"We had a handful of other guys and then we had some flat tires. We had three wheels going and then the fourth one was flat. We got going offensively in the second, but we still weren't there. In the third period, everybody played and a very good period."

Buy Photo

St. Cloud State's Patrick Newell get pushed away from the goal by Nebraska-Omaha's Fredrick Olofsson during the first period Friday, Feb. 2, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.(Photo11: Jason Wachter, jwachter@stcloudtimes.com)

Peterson's line was not incredibly pretty with its play. That's not the makeup of the line. Peterson plays a speed game and powers his way around people to get to the net and Nick and Jack Poehling are just relentless along the boards and coming back to play defense.

"They had great energy and were winning battles all night long," Motzko said, referring to plays along the boards against at least one defender. "They lost about three or four draws in the offensive zone and the Poehlings just outraced people for the puck.

"They just kept coming up with the puck all night long. That has to be contagious. That's how we play. It's hard to come with that energy every night. But when we don't, we're just not good enough to not play that hard."

Buy Photo

St. Cloud State's Judd Peterson makes a run at the Nebraska-Omaha goal during the first period Friday, Feb. 2, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.(Photo11: Jason Wachter, jwachter@stcloudtimes.com)

Pope had the first goal of the game and then tied the game at 2 with a power-play goal at 15:37 of the second period. Then Pope, who had a goal disallowed in the second period because he was offsides, added a goal at 7:46 of the third period that brought Omaha within 4-3.

His hat trick gives him 19 goals and 38 points in 27 games. The senior left wing from Edmonton, Alberta, is a fourth-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings.

"He's a good hockey player, a big strong kid who can shoot the puck," Motzko said of the 6-foot-3, 194-pounder. "He's been doing that all year."

Buy Photo

St. Cloud State's Ryan Poehling gets the puck out from behind the Nebraska-Omaha goal during the first period Friday, Feb. 2, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.(Photo11: Jason Wachter, jwachter@stcloudtimes.com)

Power play better, PairWise

The Huskies' struggled on the power play last weekend at Minnesota-Duluth, but was 1-for-3 on the power play Friday. Easton Brodzinski scored a power-play goal at 1:02 of the third period for the game-winner off a nice pass by Robby Jackson.

"Our power play answered and it's been waiting a while to do that," Motzko said.

There was much better puck movement on the last two power plays for the Huskies (10-4-1, 16-6-3).

Series, PairWise

St. Cloud State has won all three games against the Mavericks this season. The Huskies remain at No. 3 in the PairWise Rankings and in second place in the NCHC with the win. Denver (9-4-4-3, 15-6-6) beat Minnesota-Duluth 1-0 and remains three points ahead of the Huskies in the NCHC race.

This is the opinion of Mick Hatten. Follow @mickhatten on Twitter, Instagram @MickHatten and at Facebook.com/sctimesmick. Contact him at 259-3621 or mhatten@stcloudtimes.com.3

SCSU 5, UNO 3

First period scoring:

1. UNO — David Pope 17 (Joel Messner, Tyler Vesel) 3:59 (pp).

UNO won the faceoff in SCSU zone after going on the power play. Messner got to to Pope near the right wing wall and he took a few strides inside the faceoff circle to the left of David Hrenak and scored through a screen for a 1-0 UNO lead.

Schuldt shot the puck off the side of the UNO net and N. Poehling gathered it behind the net and found Peterson, who scored from the faceoff dot to the left of goalie Evan Weninger to tie the game at 1.

3. SCSU — N. Poehling 5 (Peterson) 4:25.

Peterson's shot went off the boards and then off a UNO defenseman's skate to Poehling, who scored from the slot to give SCSU a 2-1 lead.

4. UNO — Pope 18 (Fredrik Olofsson, Joel Messner) 15:37 (pp).

After having a goal disallowed because he was offsides with 6:27 left in the period, Pope scored again. He whiffed going to the slot with a shot, but the puck stayed with him and he scored on a shot that went off Hrenak's arm and in to tie the game by 2.

5. SCSU — Mikey Eyssimont 10 (Jack Ahcan, Blake Lizotte) 16:12.

Lizotte won a faceoff in the UNO zone and got it back to Ahcan near the blue line. Ahcan tried to pass it and it went off a UNO defenseman's skate and right to Eyssimont in the slot and he threw it in to give SCSU a 3-2 lead.